Pretty Maids somehow disappointed their fans when Planet Panic, their 11th studio effort, was issued.

Before the album's release, the Danish band had remained one of the few '80s veteran hard rock bands to remain true to its roots, releasing first-rate metal records year after year, despite the fact that sales were not what they used to be.

Actually, the albums Pretty Maids released just before Planet Panic were unexpectedly enjoyable for hard rock and heavy metal fans.

Recordings like Carpe Diem and especially Anything Worth Doing Is Worth Overdoing had enabled listeners to forget Pretty Maids' (and the genre's) mid-'80s golden years, when they used to compete in terms of quality with such bands as Iron Maiden or Judas Priest with some seminal albums like Future World and Red, Hot & Heavy.

But with Planet Panic, Ronnie Atkins and his troupe tried to modernize their sound, and the result is far from what they probably expected.

The introduction of new production techniques and the profusion of uncomfortable electronic textures turn Planet Panic into a confused, irregular, and scattered record.

Although they conserved their melodic sense and wrote a few good songs (e.g., "He Who Never Lived," "Playing God," and the power ballad "Natural High"), the effort doesn't leave the good taste its predecessors did.

The fact that a cover of Sammy Hagar's "One Way to Rock" is one of Planet Panic's best tracks says a lot about this album's merits -- or lack thereof.